This article was originally published by Paul Joseph Watson at Infowars.com.

Editor’s Note: Incredibly, and in direct defiance of any sane logic, a recent Supreme Court decision has justified “government seizure of private pension funds to protect pensioners,” according to famed economist Martin Armstrong. This unsettling decision puts 401ks and plenty of other funds in the crosshairs. How that can be considered consumer protection, or government shepherding is unclear, if not unfathomable. Nonetheless, the rationale is in place – so beware.

It has long since been legalized for Wall Street equity firms to gamble away pensions – including public pensions for states like California – through derivatives, while it has long since been legalized for the Federal Reserve to literally grow paper on trees, hand out free candy to sugar addicts and make money (for those at the top) so cheap its practically free – all driving down the value of money for savers, pensioners, insurance policies and ordinary people to next to nothing. Now, this too shall pass.

Moreover, numerous financial “experts” have been calling for bans on cash, blaming physical currency for problems born out of a system that has gone bizarre – and produced negative interest rates, as SHTF reported not long ago. Now, those implementing this agenda will seek to ban cash in order to force compliance with its policies, whether they are good for main street or not (and they are most certainly not). Black and grey markets will be outlawed, cash banned and everyone forced onto the digital cashless grid. The future looks bleak… better take cover.

Economist: Government Preparing to Seize 401(k) Pensions

by Paul Joseph Watson

Economist Martin Armstrong warns that a Supreme Court ruling last week has set the stage for the federal government to begin seizing private pension funds.

According to Armstrong, the outcome of Tibble v. Edison, which found that employers have a duty to protect their workers’ 401(k) plans from mutual funds that perform poorly, will grease the skids for the feds to seize private funds and prosecute companies who manage mutual funds badly.

“Between the court ruling and the Obama administration’s push for stronger fiduciary rules,” the developments send a, “strong message that government can much easier seize the pension fund management industry of course to “protect the consumer,” writes Armstrong, warning that the ruling, “sets the stage to JUSTIFY government seizure of private pension funds to protect pensioners,” when the economy gets “messy”.

“This fits perfectly just in time for the Obama administration’s next assault as they prepare a landmark change of its own by issuing rules requiring that financial advisers put the interest of customers ahead of their own,” writes Armstrong. “This creates a very gray area wide enough to justify public seizure of pension funds under management.”

Following the 2008 financial collapse, reports emerged that the federal government was planning to seize the private 401(k) pensions of millions of Americans while enforcing an additional 5 per cent payroll tax as part of a new bailout program that would empower the Social Security Administration to redistribute pension funds “fairly” amongst citizens.

Armstrong warns that the development is part of a wider move towards “economic totalitarianism,” which is also characterized by efforts to eliminate physical cash altogether in the name of giving central banks more power.

Numerous prominent individuals have called for hard currency to be banned in recent months, including former Bank of England economist Jim Leaviss, who wrote a piece for the Telegraph which argued that, “Forcing everyone to spend only by electronic means from an account held at a government-run bank would give the authorities far better tools to deal with recessions and economic booms.”

Earlier this month, German Council Of Economic expert Peter Bofinger also said that imposing a cashless society would make it easier for central banks to enforce their economic policy.

As we have covered at length, commercial banks are beginning to impose more draconian controls on the withdrawal and depositing of cash, with the practice being treated as a suspicious activity even for relatively modest sums.

Armstrong, who correctly predicted the 1987 Black Monday crash as well as the 1998 Russian financial collapse, also warned last year that a coming financial collapse will cause widespread riots to erupt in America by 2016.

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The US Department Of Commerce Officially Jumps The Shark, Will “Double Seasonally Adjust” GDP Data

“It’s official: after seeing it work so well for years in China, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Statistics has officially replaced all of its excel models with just one function.”

“As Steve Liemsan hinted a few days ago, in what we thought was a very belated April fools joke, th eBEA has finally thrown in the towel on weak seasonally-adjusted US GDP data, and as a result has decided to officially proceed with a second seasonal adjustment: one which will take all the bad data, and replaced it with nice and sparkly, if totally fake and goalseeked, GDP numbers.

As Bloomberg reports, “the way some parts of U.S. gross domestic product are calculated are about to change in the wake of the debate over persistently depressed first-quarter growth.

In a blog post published Friday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis listed a series of alterations it will make in seasonally adjusting data used to calculate economic growth. The changes will be implemented with the release of the initial second-quarter GDP estimate on July 30, the BEA said.”

In other words, as of July 30, the Q1 GDP which will have seen its final print at -1% or worse, will be revised to roughly +1.8%, just to give the Fed the “credibility” to proceed with a September rate hike which means we can now safely assume not even the Fed will launch a “hiking cycle” at a time when the first half GDP will print negative (assuming the Atlanta Fed’s 0.7% Q2 GDP estimate is even modestly accurate).”

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered…”

They exist by exerting authority over the people “taxpayer”, by force, intimidation, and violence. It’s not just the taxes they take out of our incomes. Look at all the other monies they steal everytime you get a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt, or through all these arbitrary fines and laws, the war on drugs, asset forfeiture, so on and so on. And we just keep letting them tack more and more hidden charges and fine print onto our contract because they tell us it’s all for our own good. Well I got news for people, when your bill is due, you better hope you’ve got the money to pay up

I cashed out my wife’s 401k a few years ago. She thought I was an idiot. I told her to wait. They will come to confiscate them. As far as cashing mine out, I will not be able to do that as I still work for my current employer. Wish I was able to follow that advice for myself.

Yes, I at least got that going for me. I wish I would have see this coming sooner. I never would have contributed to a 401k. My monthly retirement contributions would have been for junk silver, beans, bullets, ammo, and other survival gear. I don’t have a massive 401k, but it is still an accumulation of my labor and time that will be stolen. My time is not replaceable. I am currently getting hosed by the elites. We will see about that when the gloves drop. Lloyd Blankenstein, Jamie Dimon, Janet Yellon and your fellow sociopaths beware. I know who you are, and I know the crimes you have committed against humanity.

Borrow the bulk of your money out of your 401K if you have that option. You can pay it back to yourself over time, and possibly keep borrowing from it every time it accumulates to a certain amount. If they steal it, there would be a lot less in there since you already borrowed from it. Just a thought; hopefully someone with more understanding of this process will chime in.

You mean they are coming for digits in a computer. The brain dead dumbed down chemically altered COWARD fascist boot licking Zombie trash in the collapsing Corporatist Fascist shithole of the world actually believe they have something of value in those pension and 401K accounts stored in a computer. The Corporatist Fascist GENOCIDAL evil filth controlling the fascist shithole of the world are laughing their asses off everyday at the dumbed down ignorance of the boot licking COWARD pussy Zombies of collapsing Murica. They are screaming in laughter as the COWARD PUSSY ZOMBIE fascist boot licking trash shove more chemical filled GMO poisonous toxic shit in their toxic waste dump bodies, so they stay braind dead, dumbed down, disease ridden, and of course dead at an early age, so they never get to collect any of those worthless digits in a computer. The COWARD PUSSY ZOMBIE fascist boot licking trash in the collapsing shithole of the world deserve EVERYTHING coming the COWARD ZOMBIE PUSSIES way.

They will never elect someone like me brave enough to tell the TRUTH. Anyone who does tell the TRUTH, like Aaron Russo, John Kennedy, and many others-the Corporatist Fascist filth just have them murdered by other psychopathic fascist evil filth in the CIA and other fascist government boot licking alphabet agencies in the collapsing fascist shithole of the world.

Anti-gun idiots, I wonder if this is why the government wants the people disarmed. I mean this will be the ultimate heist in the history of the world, and they don’t want anyone to be able to stop them.

A street thug will put up more violence over $5 than a middle class person will over $500,000 in their pension investments. In the end I suspect they have more in store than just taking your pension.

They deregulate the Financial Sector abandoning Glass Steagall setting forth the groundwork for theft by deception on an unimaginable scale. The inJustice Department doesn’t prosecute using what remains of the former laws. It gives no choice to “We The People” but to surrender your wealth for safekeeping. Might as well put John Dillinger as bank President. Regarding all of this its a choice of ENRON or Uncle Sam. Take your pick, flip a coin with Uncle as heads and Corzine as tails. If it lands on edge and stays there you win.

I agree for the most part. The dumbed down slaves of Amerika could care less. However, there are quite a few that would care. Count me in that group. My caveat is that when it gets bad enough for people, they will riot. Desperate people do desperate things.

Poland suffered under the de-facto rule of the USSR, Stalin and all. It wasn’t until the subsidies were cut for food in response to the arms race with the west and prices rose too high and availability declined that the masses said, “Here I drawl the line”.

I only keep enough in the bank to pay 2 particular bills and for some occasional online shopping. The rest I keep in a safe at home [private banking]. Use a safe with the old combination dial lock. Memorize your combination and hide your written copy of that combination the best you can. Never give the combination to anyone.

The 401K monies will be given to all our newly minted citizens from the third world. Americans will not need them as a new final solution is in our future. Who would have believed that it would be so easy for a Muslim half breed to totally disassemble the US in eight years. That no one would even resist.

The end game is not so far off now Cashing out your 401K – tax liability is upwards to 40%. Think that sucks, there’s more to come. The avian virus that poultry farms were forced to slaughter almost 100% of their flocks-eggs and products that use eggs is going to go up – possibly as high as 200%.

Side note: was experimenting with a power inverter the other day-took my riding lawnmower and attached the power feed to the battery terminals-had 120VAC production without having to purchase a gen-set. Just some shade tree McGyverism hints.
Be well
Cat

Cat, A riding mower battery is around 20ah capacity and probably charges at about 1-2 amps. Thats enough to power a small device but anything larger will drain the battery asap and shut the inverter down. Just so you know 🙂

The things run forever, produce a huge amperage at low speeds using very little fuel, and serve as viable transportation or a high powered self portable generator with a pretty hefty battery capacity and no modifications.

You can pretty much run them on any oil thin enough to pump easily through the injectors, the absolutely love automatic transmission fluid which is readily available at any transmission shop that does fluid changes (better than veggie oil by far).

My union pension is off limits so I suppose I will have to sell the house, move to the alternate location, use my wheel and deal skills (work very well and in demand) and just do it that way. We will be fine without pension and besides, I like to buy and sell more than I like working 😛

Just friggin great Genius!You say will have a party at your home(end of world and all)but did put it out there maybe a cook out at Warchilds!You are not trying to save moniey/your investments ect.,your passing the buck on the end of world bash!

My list of names is longer than that. We need to create “dossiers” on all of them. Thankfully, some of them won’t be around much longer, for example, David Rockefeller, who will be 100 in a couple of weeks. Find names, research them, and create paper files. Trade backup CDs with friends.

Information on the internet may disappear. The “Wayback Machine” at ht tp://archive.org can find pages that have “disappeared” for one reason or another.

A good starting place is Wikipedia, so download a backup copy of it occasionally. Check out this link: ht tp://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/11/all-of-wikipedia-can-be-installed-to-your-desktop-in-just-30-hours/

I’m working on it. I know some people who have asked me about some of the things they’ve started hearing. They seem to value my knowledge. So I tell them about the things that they probably don’t have to worry about. Then, when I tell them about the things they do need to consider, they’re more open to listen.

So far, everyone, black or white, has an intense distrust and dislike for our dear leader and everyone else in DC.

It may not be PC, but I’m concentrating on people who seem to have some means to prepare. The other people can’t seem to find the money to do anything but buy junk food and plastic crap from “Walmarks.”

ISIS will be brought to this country. People better get a clue as to the end game here. Doubt that there is anything that can be done about it. They believe fanatically and we believe in nothing. Guess who will win that match up.

Thank God I took all of my 401K money 10 years ago took the penalty and bought land, 100 acres. Yes I pay taxes on it. But my taxes are under $50.00 a year that is not a miss print 50 bucks.
If I had a 401K I would get rid of it and use it for other things. I don’t have to tell you folks, you know what to do with it.
These thieving bastards are going to stop at nothing.
Maybe the up coming attack from two articles back as bad as it is, would be the start of something good. Just maybe we could get rid of the thieving bastards and start all over again!
They are going to take from Peter and give to Paul. Peter being the middle class tax payers and Paul being the Zombies and Leaches. It is time to let them starve! I’m sorry the have taxed me to a point where I have a hard time helping my family!
See where, I believe it was Arizona has set a ONE YEAR limit on food stamps to anyone that can work. GOOD for them!!!
Rant is over.
Sgt.

401K’s. Cash them out and take the loss. You folks know what to do with the T.P. you will get for it. so go and buy some Food, Guns, Ammo, and what ever you need.

This damn thing is B.S. Thank God I don’t have a 401K. These thieving bastards in D.C. are going to tax, and or steal our money right into a Civil war. WHY? We never need this before 1960’s Why now? Makes no frigging scene to me.

The frigging Zombies and Leaches have taken over and they are not going to stop until we are fighting over crumbs of bread. God Help Us.
Sgt.

It’s not just 401K’s Sgt. Dale, State and Federal Pensions will be looted too. Even if a person was to cash out their retirement funds, and lets say this person is holding 300K in a bag at home. Does anyone here think the Government is going to grant this person a fair and even 300k in a digital currency?

No, but they will get a lesser amount in return than what they are holding in their bag. This will act out no differently than when they (gov.) outlawed Gold. They lowered the price of gold, and when they (gov.) felt they had all they needed from the people, they raised the price of gold to the point you couldn’t buy it back.

Currencies, whether it be gold/silver or other precious metals and stones are only worth what they (gov.) says it is. These people manipulate everything and it is a direct slap in the face to the person who is holding such valuables. It’s wise to have these items, but it still leaves an individual stuck in the rut to play their manipulative financial game.

Only way people can prosper and be financially secure is for the Global Enslavement of Finance be destroyed and be replaced with an honest system. Yes, I know the last part is a complete fantasy because there is literally no more honor in our society anymore.

THE SLAVE GAME:

To survive, you must play by their rules and regulations.
Do not undermine your authority figure(s) or there will be dire consequences.
Do what you are told, and shut the fuck up.
Pay your Taxes and be happy about it.
If the System needs more money from you, smile and be grateful that you are able to help them out.
Do your duty, and report those to the authority who will not comply with the System.

If this game is not to your liking, then you are automatically a “Freedom Fighter”.
It’s in your duty to rebel, revolt, and become disobedient to your Authority figures, and this can all be done with a big smile on your face – enjoy 🙂

All pension programs are in jeopardy, 401k’s are currently the low hanging fruit. The prime example is Detroit and how the pensioners are fighting just to keep their retirement.

All city, county, and state pension programs are up to their eyeballs in unfunded (future) liabilities. There is nothing left in the kitty to pay.

My pension is private and is also in jeopardy. Because of ZIRP (zero interest rate protocols), pension programs are suffering from limited growth, therefore falling short of funding to pay future obligations. My current pension is capped lower than what I have accrued through time.

IMHO, our earned pension money will be replaced with negative interest and worthless U.S. bonds, and bank accounts will be given a sizable haircut to pay off gambling banker debt in the derivatives market. Those injuries are first blood and time for us to act in concert. Brutally I might add, brutally.

Illinois’s unfunded liabilities are to the moon Alice, to the moon. I wish you luck, and get your ass out of there, ASAP.

“B.A.” & “T.M.”
I know but I don’t have any control over it to be able to cash it out.
The nice thing is that I have gotten 10 years of them paying me. I just started getting my pension from the factory I worked at before I became a cop.
Right now I’m in good shape. But tomorrow just might be an different story. That is why I’m a Prepper!
Just added More food from Honeyville, Picked up some more silver, Brass and bullets, and a new AR15 pistol.
Hunting & Fishing gear is ready. I hope and pray that I have all my ducks in a roll.
Sgt.

you signed a contract,, now they are wanting to rescind that contract … not one inch should be given you paid your end of the contract , now comes your turn and they want to F- you up the backside .. no ..noway

those people were made to understand that this is what they were working for ..a guarantee of sorts .. a contract

i just lost my job and have been thinking of cashing out my 401k, im not sure what its gonna cost me to do so but i would rather have the loss and be able to pay my bills then to give it away to the gooberment…. so the retirement funds are gonna go the way of social security, wow what a surprise

You shouldn’t get your tax advise here. Most the comments are not totally accurate. If you take a 401K or 403b lump sum they withhold 20% for taxes. At tax time you figure out how much of that 20% you get back as your distribution is generally considered income. Find out what the outfit that has your 401k or 403b is going to put in your 1099R box 7. A “1” is bad, it means Early distribution, no known exception (in most cases, under age 59 ½) and you will owe the penalty. The rest of the other possible codes generally mean you don’t have to pay a 10% penalty.

Rellik offers good advice, especially when it comes to taxes. I would also point out that self-directed IRAs are an option for some. (Plenty of information on them available). And, if your wife would kill you for cashing out your 401k, look to see if you can take out a loan against it. I did the latter and invested the proceeds in PMs. I pay myself back at 2.25% interest, which will look great after the stock market goes belly up and ‘corrects’.

i havent decided what im going to do, it may turn out that i wont have to cash it out and then again i dont want to loose it either… i do have some ideas as to what to do… i do agree that this isnt the best place to get advice, but it gets me thinking

This article is poorly written. It references 401(k) pensions… then social security… without really describing how they govt would go about seizing these funds. I’m a pension specialist for one of the biggest record keepers in the financial industry. We calculate pensions and initiate payments for thousands of pensioners on a regular basis. 401(k)’s and pensions are completely different. Maybe not in terms of how the govt could seize those funds but certainly in how they work. Pensions are guaranteed annuities paid out by these big corporations to plan participants. The money is held in a trust and all we do is write checks from it. Should govt decide to seize all the funds in the trust then they would need to decide which companies trust to go after and which ones to leave alone. Its highly unlikely they would just seize everything in all of these trusts all at once. People would be in an uproar. 401(k)s on the other hand fluctuate constantly and have been wiped out before due to market conditions. Social security is a completely different animal. Its structure as a pension but your fooling yourself if you thing that money just sitting there. The govt took that money long ago. The money we pay into it today is getting paid out tomorrow to people currently receiving those checks.

Think in terms of those trust funds being required to be reinvested in government bonds.

Maybe the Postal service could issue bonds that pension fund trusts were, by law, required to have a certain percentage of their assets invested in. (actually, that might not be a bad idea. It could rescue the Post Office without costing the taxpayer anything.)

Jim
Do what you can. Plant a garden can your food or dehydrate it. If you can put as much as you can into your prepps. The most important things is put yourself into the Hands of God.
I believe you are one of those that one day I will meet and find that you did just what you needed to and made it through the coming Hell.
Sgt.

Focus – look around you and pay attention. We live in a World where there is no such thing as “guarantee’s” anymore. It has been replaced with fantasy lies, and failed promises which seems to work pretty well with the clueless society.
Just because something is written in black and white and is called a “contract”, means very little to them. Unions can and have changed/altered such documents and will continue to do so if need to be.

I can recall the days of when a person’s word actually meant something, now most people renege and don’t follow through.
I can recall a day when “paper contract” was not necessary, but a handshake to finalize the deal was as good as gold.

401k’s and Pensions get played and pooled in the Stock Market, problem is. Wall Street does not reflect to what is happening on Main Street. Record setting stock numbers, yet we live in a country that does not produce or manufacture a damn thing anymore – how can the stock market be doing so well?

It’s a complete fabricated illusion, and it’s a very dangerous game for anybody to be playing in it right now. The house of cards that has been created will eventually come down. The insider trading, market manipulation / corruption will reveal itself soon enough.

When the SHTF finally arrives, currency or any form relevant to financial stability is the least of my concerns. Survival is all that will matter, and preparing the best way I can is the best asset for me.

I completely agree with you. Im not saying that pensions are guaranteed. In fact we regularly laugh at the word guarantee in finance because of how despicable things have gotten. Things never used to be like that. In principle pensions were guaranteed upon their creation. The company issuing it was on the hook for the money regardless of how well the invested funds did. If they defaulted on those payments then they would liquidize the company and the pension benefit guaranty corporation would continue paying the participant. Companies of course didnt like that they were responsible so they created the 401(k) where the individual is now responsible for looking after and investing those funds appropriately. Employees are now also responsible for any gains and losses as well and are expected to be able to retire off that. Its a joke. I get fed this crap from my employer daily and I know its all smoke and mirrors. I just think its a little more complicated to disappear every pension, 401(k) and social security benefit in America than the article portrays.

wait until the city workers , fire and cops realize their pensions are involved this way too

will there really be any incentive to be a part of that thin blue line than ?

always warned that being Unionized was not always a good thing , especially while your BA has more bling on and drives a better car and lives in a better home then those he is supposedly “representing”

boy doesn’t that sound and look familiar ? just look at who is supposedly “representing ” us in government

yep you got it ,, better bling, better home, better car ..hell someone to drive their better car for them

Problem is there isn’t enough working taxpayers to cover the gov so they have to steal more from those that work. Pensions are finished my company is funding mine at 25 percent I’m gonna get nothing when I’m old what $1000 a month that’s nothing compared to the guys retiring now getting $4000 a month. Working long hours with no promise of a decent retirement it’s a joke folks. I have retired guys working still 40 hrs a month just to get free union medical. Old guys that should be playing golf with the few years they have left. They are getting screwed still. We are not talking about guys sleeping in a fire house and getting paid we are talking about guys that busted their ass 50 to 60 hrs a week for over 30 years. They have earned it and deserve it for their commitment to the trade. But the media and politicians attack the guy that is getting a pension. They talk about elder fraud but they are the ones doing it. When the gov robs people it has to be done but if someone defrauds an elder they are a criminal.

Didn’t they say if its in the bank its theirs not yours.
Most people just laugh at you when you say that. Wonder who will have the last laugh.
That rainy day may never come. Get what you need with it now.

With Greece “Nowhere Close” To Deal, Depositors Pull €300 Million From Banks In Single Day

“Greece is “nowhere close” to a deal with its creditors and will miss a May deadline to strike a compromise ahead of an IMF payment due on June 5. Meanwhile, the ECB tightens the screws on the country’s banking sector by refusing to lift the ceiling on the emergency liquidity that until now has helped to offset deposit flight.”

“On Tuesday, Greece postponed a scheduled Eurogroup meeting in Brussels without offering a reason as officials conducted “preparatory” discussions and held an evening teleconference with creditors.

Face-to-face meetings will take place today with just 9 days to go until June 5 when Athens will miss a payment to the IMF, triggering an unprecedented default the repercussions of which no one can accurately predict.”

Geez, you guys can’t see a good thing when it slaps you in the face. The seizing of the pensions is FOR your protection..OTHERWISE, these corporations holding and investing your money can go under, declare bankruptcy, pay everyone BUT you….that is till now. Now, your money will be seized BEFORE the shysters get a chance to squander it making it go poof.

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